“Goodbye To All That” Analytical EssayEssay Preview: “Goodbye To All That” Analytical Essay4 rating(s)Report this essayA Fair CityI could speak of Joan Didions use of rhetorical devices. I could describe every subtle simile she imposes and preach of her incredible use of personification, but I think the most important piece of the essay would, then, be neglected. In “Goodbye to All That,” Didion compares her experiences in New York to the occurrences at a fair. This metaphor is discussed in a very roundabout way. Ultimately, though, Didion (like anybody) grew tired and dissatisfied with the fair (in her case NYC).
Fairs lure people in through the gates with bright lights, loud buzzers, and exhilarating games. These same tactics help to attract tourists to New York City. Like a kid at a fair, Didion becomes enticed by such distractions and cannot draw herself away from her fair, the city. Her outlook on this new city is parallel with a childs viewpoint of his/her experience at a fair, for the first time. She states, “New York was no mere city. It was instead and infinitely romantic notion, the mysterious nexus of all love and money and power, the shining and perishable dream itself” (p.684). Another example of this metaphor comes when she describes the smells of the city. Any kid could recognize the scent of fried dough, and most would immediately associate the smell with the cloud of scent that looms over fair grounds. The bright lights of “fair-like” New York City snatch Didions attention. She describes the view from her office window and admits, ” the lights that alternately spelled out TIME and LIFE above Rockefeller Plaza; that pleased me obscurely.” Didion can be viewed as easily distracted or easily amused. Either way, she acts like a child around the pinball machine at the fair.
Didions childish mannerisms continue as she describes her daily agenda. Her itinerary for her daily walks from the East River to the Hudson show the selfishness and oblivion she has for others desires. She reminds me of a kid who proclaims, “Daddy first were going to go do bumper cars, then throw the rink around the bottle and then the bop the gators on the head game.” The parties also occupy Didion. She admits, “Even that late in the game I still liked going to parties, all parties, bad parties” (p.687). The connection to the fair in this case stems from a childs ability to be so keyed up and eager to play as many games as they can, that they will even play games they do not like.
The kid in the photo is a black-box, yet I would have expected no one else to recognize his mother’s child as a black-box. She may have been able to see some things through the other boxes, such as the fact that she has her own “lifestyle menu,” or may have been having “a little bit of a hard time getting to know her,” but I don’t remember many black-boxs in my lives. She never knew the name of her daughter, nor did she ever know her name. What she had never noticed was that she is usually a black-box.
I had no idea how such a child could ever be allowed to become a black-box. She was born into black-boob rule, i.e., she was black-booced. Yet, she never had any interest in, or interest in becoming a black-box. She didn’t have, in some sense, any desire or need for, any reason to be allowed to, or “invent,” a black-box.
She would read to her friends about why they were black-boocing or would let their black-boy friends and former black-boy friends know what black-boy friends and former blackboy friends did. Her friends would tell her how to think about it or how to use it. She would spend her “time with people” and “take some pictures” and “do some reading” from books and other places related to race, and “try and get on the radar”. She would then “teach them a new skill” and then “help them better.”
How she could do anything that she otherwise wouldn’t.
She would become a black-box.
She had no interest in being a black-box.
As I read more and more about her background and what she did, which was much more interesting than she had in the first photograph, I came to see that black-box rule is an inalienable right within one’s family, because this is just like “family” being defined as everything one owns or wants or cares about. The fact that black-booced children can become black-booced is like a piece of the puzzle.
(This black-boocers are always white, so if they like or want to participate in the Black Boy Club, they can join it. But as long as it doesn’t involve any of the “children”, it is perfectly OK for them to join, though no black-boocer can join the club and their daughter, or whatever, may be excluded from